In the technology world, women are decidedly in the minority. Often, it’s hard for them to speak with their male peers about careers, advancement and even some aspects of the technology they might be working on.

In the hopes of fostering communication among women, SPTechCon—in conjunction with the advocacy group Women in SharePoint —is hosting a networking luncheon for women. According to its website, “Women in SharePoint is dedicated to helping women working as SharePoint professionals reach their career objectives through a variety of community, training and mentoring programs.” We hope that all women attending SPTechCon will join us for this special event.

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SPTechCon San Francisco, the SharePoint world’s best independent technical conference, is a mere eight weeks away, and you can expect that seats will start filling up quickly as folks turn their attention away from holidays and festivities and get back down to business in the new year. I urge you to register as soon as you can to ensure you don’t get shut out of any classes you might want to take, and to lock in the best possible price.

Next Friday, Jan. 13, is a discount cutoff date, and you can save US$400 off the full conference price if you register by then. We have discounts for groups of four or more, for user group members, and for speaker referrals, and I encourage you to take advantage of them to save the most you can. We’re excited about the program we’ve put together, with plenty to keep developers, IT pros, architects and business users busy for four full days! You can check out the class listings on www.sptechcon.com, and register there as well.

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If you find yourself in the Big Apple this evening with nothing to do and nowhere to go, the NYCSPUG meeting at Microsoft’s Sixth Avenue offices is featuring Richard Harbridge, Mark Miller, Jason Medero, Scot Hillier and more. Register to attend.

Also, on Jan. 10, new Quest evangelist Chris McNulty will be presenting at the Long Island SPUG meeting. Register here to attend.